Germicidal soap



Patented Nov. 15, 1949 GERMICIDAL SOAP William S. Grunp, Montclair, N. J., asaignor to The Givaudan Corporation, a co p ration of New Jersey No Drawing.

Original application January 24,

1941, Serial No. 375,801. Divided and this application November 20, 1943, Serial No. 511,111

2 Claims. (Cl. 252-407) This invention relates to soaps and has par-- ticular reference to soaps which possess germicidal properties.

This application is a division of Serial No. 375,801, flled January 24, 1941, which matured into Patent No. 2,353,724, issued July 18, 1944.

An object of this invention is to provide a germicidal soap by incorporating certain substances, hereinafter mentioned, into washing, toilet or socalled liquid soaps.

A further object of this invention is the provision of new compositions of matter.

Other objects wiii be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a reading of the following description.

According to the present invention, washing soaps, toilet soaps and liquid soaps may be rendered germicidal by incorporating therein a 2,2- dihydroxy halogenated diphenyl.

The 2,2'-dihydroxy halogenated diphenyls of this invention may be represented according to their chemical structure as follows:

OH OH where R is a halogen and n is an integer from 1 to 4 inclusive.

As examples of specific members of the foregoing class of compounds in the chlorine series may be mentioned:

on on on on and on on Compounds having other halogen substituents, e. g. bromine, iodine and fluorine are encompassed by this invention. Also falling under the class of compounds disclosed herein are those which have more than one halogen substituent, such as. for example, chlorine and bromine, in one or both nuclei.

The 2,2'-dihydroxy halogenated diphenyls are white, crystalline solids. The melting points and solubility characteristics of certain of these compounds follow:

Melting 5-tetrabromo diphony].

For purposes of this application, the 2,2-dihydroxy halogenated diphenyls are termed germicidal agents, and are hereinafter sometimes referred to as such, and sometimes referred to merely as agents.

Relatively small amounts of the germicidal agents of the invention are sufficient to render soap germicidal. Amounts as low as A of 1% of the germicidal agent, based on the weight of the soap content of the final soap product, have proved satisfactory in some cases. However, I prefer to use amounts of the order of 1 to 3% on the same basis. The upper limit of rthe amount of agent which may be used is determined by practical considerations. As a general rule, increasing the concentration of agent in the soap increasesthe germicidal activity of the resulting soap. However, the cost of the agent relative to the cost of the soap itself mitigates against the use of too large an amount of the agent in soap. Moreover, large amounts of the agent in soap are to be avoided if it is desired to obtain a resulting soap product with satisfactory detergent properties. Soaps containing as much as 10% Of the agents of this invention were found to be satisfactory in this regard.

The invention may be practiced by adding the agents to the soap in any suitable manner during the crutching or milling or similar operation. Care should be taken to obtain a uniform distribution of the agents throughout the soap. They may be dissolved in a small amount of a suitable solvent, for example, acetone or alcohol. If desired, however, the agents may be added directly to the soap without dissolving them previously. In the case of frame soaps, I prefer to add the agents to the soap during the crutching operation. With milled soaps, I prefer to make the addition during the milling operation. In the case of liquid soaps, I prefer to effect the addition while the agent is in solution. In general, any method which results in the agent being uniformly incorporated into the final soap product is satisfactory.

stead of transferring the loopful of material containing the test sample and culture to the broth at the end of the contact time as in the official 1". D. A. test method, the loopful was transferred to a tube'of liquid agar, maintained at approxi- 4 The term "soap" as used herein is employed in its popular or ordinary meaning. The term refers to cleansing agents, made usually by the action of alkali on fat or fatty acids and consistessentially of sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids.

The term germicidal soap" for the purposes or this .patent application refers to those soaps which are effective against Staphylococcus aareas of standard resistance. For example, if a' soap is not efl'ective against Staphylococcus aureus, it

' is not considered to be germicidal, whether or mately 42 C. The contents were thoroughly mixed and then poured into a petri dish and allowed to solidify at room temperature, followed by an incubation period of 40-48 hours at 37 C.

The number of colonies present after this treatment were counted. It is this plate count" which the numbers given in the accompanying table represent. The number zero (0) represents absence of colonies and hence indicates that the sample tested destroyed all of the bacteria. In other words, germicidal power is inversely related to the number given as the plate count.

In order to check the organism, Staphylococcus aureus, for proper resistance, a plate count was run on phenol of dilution of 1:80 and 1:90 and only those cultures having proper resistance were employed in the test.

The following table gives data obtained by testing a neutral milled soap alone and by testing the same soap containing 2% of certain of the germicidal agents. The data given in the table are intended as illustrative of specific embodiments of the invention and are not to be considered as limiting the scope of the invention.

A refer! to the neutral soap plus the added agent, except in the use of the soap bhnk where A refers to the soap itself.

iA/Lll means that 1 part by weight of material A was diluted with Lbdparte of g4 refers tgeratlmxtme of 1 partAcKJA an we e e lures un designations etc. re to the plate ooun obtained at thedilution -"i "Not tested. I

not it is eflective against other types of bacteria. On the other hand, if a soap is eifective against Staphylococcus aurcus, the soap is considered to be germicidal, whether or not it is eilective against any other types of bacteria.

-The foregoing illustrates the practice of my invention which. however, is not to be limited thereby but is to be construed as broadly as permissible in view of the prior art and limited solely by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A germicidal soap essentially comprising a detergent soap and 2,2'-dihydroxy-5,5'-dibrom diphenyl.

2. A germicidal soap comprising a detergent soap and 1 to 3% by weight of 2.2'-dihydroxy 5.5'-dibromo diphenyl.

' WILLIAM S. GUMP.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATE PATENTS Number Name Date 1,892,000 Nitardv et al Dec. 27, 1932 1,987,228 Bruson Jan. 8, 1985 1,989,081 Christiansen et a1. Jan. 29, 1935 1,992,577 Moness Feb. 20, 1985 2,014,720 Christiansen et a1. Sept 17, 1985 2,059,195 Andersen Nov. 3, 1988 2,353,724 Gump July 18, 1944 I FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 427,324 Great Britain AR. 28. 1980 333,584 Great Britain 1990 

